The Beginning of the End
by Slipsilvermoon
Summary: After Ichigo's death he is sent to the Rukon district, remembering nothing of his past. He lives his life out in the worst district of all, trying to scrape by as much as he can, still haunted by the past he doesn't remember. When opportunities arise, a great pressure has been put on him . Will he be able to live up to the expectations of those who knew him? Or will he fail them?
1. Chapter 1

**Note: This story will not be updated as often as my other story because this is just a fun story on the side**

* * *

_Ichigo_

I never thought it'd come to this. Laying on the ground, waiting for someone, Orihime or anyone from the fourth devision. No one came, they couldn't, not now, with so many to deal with. My face in the ground, all I can see is the dirt and the grass. I turn myself over, slowly and painfully, the wound in my chest causing much of my immobility. Looking into the clear sky, too blue for a day like this. Damn, if only I hadn't followed him so far out, maybe someone could help me. I know my death is just minutes away, just like when Byakuya had attacked me with Renji, at the beginning. Rukia, I didn't really have any time to tell her this, our lives were just too crazy, but I started to have feelings for her. It's natural anyway, but I didn't date many girls in high school, I mean Yuzu and dad would just bust my chops if I brought a girl home. Man, if I only I had more time, I could've had more relationships.

Why'd this fight with him end this way? After the fight that killed old man Yamma, the soul society was just falling to pieces. I can't begin to imagine what it'll be like when so many have died like this. I'll try to help out, but I mean, who knows if I'll have powers again or not. At least I killed him, and most of our enemies are dead now, only a few are sticking out the fight, but they'll die too, soon. I wonder how many are weakening, just like me. I can feel the disappearance of many souls who weren't even a ranking, but no captains are dead, I can feel the reiatsu of many. Many are weak and some will need immediate attention probably, but none are completely gone. They won't have time to reach me, we fought so far out, but I had to fight him out here, or we'd lose. I laugh, just thinking that I made it this far without dying. My chuckles turn into coughs, I can't believe I won. I listen for footsteps that'll never come, I didn't tell anyone, it'll take forever for them to find me out here. Sighing, it's just so unbelievable that these are my last moments. I wish a goodbye to all of my family and friends, as I feel myself fading. The breaths are getting harder, and everything is just mechanical now. It's hard to stay awake, the black falling over me. I can still hear, but I hear nothing but a cool wind that passes over my body as I take my last breath.

* * *

_Rukia_

The Quincy I was fighting put up a good fight. I watched him die and take his last breath. His body limp on the cobble within the Seireitei's streets. I pull Sode no Shirayuki out of his body, scowling at the red blood that stains my beautiful sword. The pool of blood that surrounds him soils my shoes. It's hopeless, my clothes are too dirty, I'll need to get some new ones. One of the rookies from the 6th division scrambles to drag the body away, the piles of body slowly building outside the 12th division's head quarters. I'm sure Captain Mayuri will find use to them some way or another. I walk back towards the 13th division, hoping to report to the captain. I hear the quick footsteps of Orihime behind me, I turn to her and smile. Orihime's clothes are covered in grime and sweat. She looks dirty and grimy, but who isn't after a long and exhausting fight like this.

"It's finally over." I say sighing, the Quincies' presence in the Soul Society was no more. Orihime doesn't look glad or relieved at all. She looks panicked, and her hands are fidgeting. I don't get what she could be nervous about, I mean everything was over, right? It didn't take long to find out what was on her mind.

"Hey Rukia, where's Ichigo? I can't find him anywhere." Orihime's voice is very soft and filled with concern, I barely hear her. It's no wonder she's panicked, I mean he ran off in the beginning of the fight, I tried tracking and focusing on his Spiritual Pressure throughout the fight, but the more distance he put in between us, the weaker it got.

"I don't know Orihime, try any direction and see if his Spiritual Pressure get's stronger. I'm assuming he went pretty far off, he was running straight from the beginning." Orihime always does this, worrying for no apparent reason, Ichigo will be fine, he always is. Orihime sits down thinking for a little bit and scrunches her face in concentration.

"I found it, maybe if I scoot a little bit in one direction I'll be able to..." Orihime cut herself off, and what made it worse was her face fell.

"What's wrong Ori..." Then I felt it, Ichigo's Spiritual Pressure was completely gone. Orihime was sobbing before I even knew what happened. The thoughts just were impossible for me, Ichigo was dead? I ran off to find someone who knew Ichigo, I spotted my brother and ran to him.

"Byakuya! You look horrible, sit down." I helped him sit down, his wounds were serious, so I called over Orihime, who was a crying mess.

"Orihime, now's not the time, please help me with Byakuya." Orihime rushed over, trying to distract herself from the inevitable.

"Byakuya, am I hallucinating, or is Ichigo's Spiritual Pressure completely gone?" I wouldn't be able to take it if he died, I mean I love him, just like Orihime does.

"Rukia, we won't know for sure until we find the body, maybe he's just in a critical condition." It seemed like hours, but I saw it with my own two eyes. Ichigo Kurosaki's dead corpse, being carried off towards the first division. I just broke down crying, on the ground. I sat with my head between my knees, the constant sounds of water hitting the ground. I felt dizzy, I couldn't think straight. Was I the one who was screaming?

Someone came and helped me up, my mind and senses numb to the surroundings. The person explained everything to me. Apparently his dead soul returned to its human body which was with his dad in the human world. They brought his body back to the soul society so we could pay our respects before he had his funeral in the human world. Only a few were invited, but everyone showed up: all the captains, lieutenants and some seated officers. It was Captain Commander's request that we hold a small gathering, Ichigo helped the Soul Society in so many ways, we were hugely indebted to him.

I guess now he'll be a soul in the Rukon District, it'll take forever to find him, we might never see him again. Maybe once he gets assigned a district, he can try to walk to the Seireitei or one of the people on the outskirts who helped us in the past. It won't be the same though, he may have no powers left. Captain Commander said that he'll send some people to look for him, and see if he has any Shinigami powers left, and if so, he can enroll into the academy. He didn't tell anyone who he was planning on sending out, except for the people themselves. So as soon as we can, Renji and I are going to go into the districts, looking for Ichigo.

* * *

_Ichigo_

Where I am, who I am and how I died, I don't remember. I have no memories of my past at all, no recollection of anything. I guess the guy who explained the districts to me knew me. He was surprised, and called out Ichigo. What a silly name for a guy like me. But I guess that was what my name was, because that's what the he told me. He thought he made a mistake, he said there was no way that the Ichigo kid died. I'm surprised he knew me, did everyone know each other here? I told him I didn't remember anything, and his face fell. Maybe I was just special, but I don't know. I'll ask some people around, but this district doesn't seem so welcoming. I mean I was in district 80, the worst of the worst. At least my family was welcoming enough, but we were in rags, and everyone was starving.

I told them my name was Ichigo, and I didn't remember a thing. It was just a bunch of kids, trying to scrape by barely without dying. We moved around a lot into some of the nicer houses, because one of the captains killed a lot of the people in the 80th district. Everyone out here didn't know much about the affairs of the Shinigami; that's what they called the people in the black kimonos. The ones that wear white haoris are captains.

One day, a man wearing a haori, who was presumably a captain, came out and rounded up a lot of the people from this district. Akane, one of the girls in my family was watching from the roof tops, being careful not to be spotted. She knew that it'd be bad if she came along. She watched them get taken away to never return, the people who remained only could assume they were dead. Akane, who was the leader of our 'family', told me that the reason we didn't stop moving was because we were looking for the perfect house. There was one rumored in the 80th district that was very nice in the inside, but disgusting on the outside. So they spent the days searching, while stealing food from the vendors in the better districts. I heard it was really hard to get jobs out here in 80, so we're forced to get our food in the nicer districts. Usually no one goes to other districts than your own, but because we do we're constantly being chased out for being an 'eye sore' and 'troublesome'.

It's interesting though, I guess before I died I wasn't used to hunger, I mean some feelings were very familiar, but my body wasn't familiar with this intense hunger. For most of the kids they said it was nicer here than where they lived in their old life. It was interesting listening to their stories. It was a shame I couldn't tell mine, but no one asked, because they knew it probably wasn't pretty. I wonder what my life was like, and how I could've died, all just mysteries waiting to be unraveled.

**Tell me what you think about my story.**

**I hope you liked it, and thanks for reading.**

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**-Silver**


	2. Chapter 2

_Rukia_

We started at district one, hoping that he'd be in one of the best families. It'd be easier to contact those within the nicer districts, but the worse the district, the harder it was to find people. Ichigo was well known to most of the people in district one, and they knew right away that he wasn't there. We looked everywhere, knocking on people's houses. We brought along a picture of him, in case they didn't know who he was. We asked those who hadn't seen him to notify us if they saw him.

The search was endless; we decided to start at the north districts, trying our best. This was the worse thing possible, not only are there four parts of each district, there are 80 in general. We wouldn't be able to even locate what district or direction with ease. Even if we found out what district, it would take forever to search within the districts. It was just a hell within a hell. I mean this place was big enough to hold all the people who died on earth, which is many people every second. It was impossible to find someone. I just wished we were more organized, but we had other things to worry about, one fight after another. A year wasn't enough for us to recuperate, then after that the Quincies, they just kept on coming. Even if we handled all the disputes, we'd have to deal with the large count of Hollows. For as many shinigami there are you would think that Hollows would almost be extinct. District 5 is when I gave up, wouldn't it just be easier if they made an announcement? I met up with Renji at sunset, and we headed back into the Seireitei. We talked with Captain Commander and I suggested the announcement.

"Rukia, we should wait. It would be a lot of trouble explaining why we should try to find Ichigo. Plus, Ichigo's pretty dependable, he'll come to us when he feels it's right. Rukia, the reason I sent you out is if Ichigo couldn't find the way back, he'd kind of meet halfway through. If you want to be taken off the job, you'll just have to wait longer to find him. I have a mission that has your name on it that you can go do."

"It's fine, I'll look for at least another month or two, and if there's no luck, then you can take me off the job."

"Oh, we also set up a flier asking the person who assigned Ichigo to his district to contact us. So it's a matter of if a Shinigami wants to say where he was sent to and if he even remembers. It's a hard thing to remember if you do it over and over again for days at a time. That's all." If only all the things related to Shinigami and our recent battles weren't a secret, everyone would know Ichigo, and then it'd be easier finding him.

* * *

_Ichigo_

The rush was exhilarating. I don't believe I did stuff like this in my past life. I mean the rush felt familiar, all too familiar, but it didn't feel the same. I mean the way my senses feel, it'd be irrational for me to have done this frequently but get so nervous and unprofessional, you'd think the experience would lead me to becoming useful. 5 of us were running from the fat man that sold the star candies on the side of the street. Of course my orange hair came to a disadvantage, but it was fun running for our lives. I felt like I've read a story like this before, the life of someone living in filth and poverty, sounds like many people actually. Even though I wasn't used to this, I could still run fast, I must've been a great runner in my old life.

Pondering about the things I could've been was useless, it wouldn't help me survive out here, when everyone was starving and dehydrated. One of the older guys from our group decided to trip the man running after us. He fell and something clicked in my mind, an image of a young girl with black hair tripping a man, just like Goro had. A sharp pain formed in my head, a migraine had begun. I became dizzy and staggered to the right, running into an old woman in shredded rags. The group slowed and Mikan, the youngest girl in our rag-tag group, came back and gave me support. I leaned a little bit of my weight on her, my head throbbing. Everyone else ran while Mikan stayed behind to give me support. We were heading in a different direction than before.

"Mikan where are we going?"

"To our new house, didn't you hear Akane? Jeeze you're the eldest, shouldn't you listen more?"

"Sorry… I was kind of busy with other things."

"Hmmph, even though I look 10 technically I'm 13, I can listen better than you." She smacked me right in the middle of my forehead. I winced, hitting my head with a migraine hurts like hell.

"10, really? You're very tall for the body of a 10 year old, it's abnormal." I stopped leaning on her, being able to regain my footing.

"You're so rude!" Mikan ran off sticking her tongue out. I had no idea where we were going so I ran after her, catching up in an instance.

"You're going to have to run faster if you want to outrun me." I say taunting her. She gets a gleam in her eye, and sprints off, trying her hardest to outrun me. As the sun starts to set we began to get into the area called the 80th district. It was a long run from there to here. Suddenly Mikan turns into a small wooden doorway, and I skid when I stop, thrown off by the abruptness. When I enter the doorway I'm breathing heavily and my hearts pumping hard. The migraine has started to subside and Mikan starts laughing when she finally catches her breath. I feel more alert, enjoying myself. I guess being dead isn't oh so bad.

"Ichigo, you're weird, and what's with the girls name." She sticks her tongue out at me again, taunting me. Before I can say anything she runs off, going to claim her room. I look around our new house, it was larger than the others. In the past 2 weeks we've gone to 30 different houses looking for the rumored one. Hikaru, a guy who looks 14 but is actually 15 now, shows me the places open for a futon. All the beds were taken because I was the last one back. It was pretty roomy though, considering there were 10 of us. In the past we slept on the floor and the younger ones all shared one futon. I don't know how we would've lasted if it wasn't summer, with the lack of blankets and such.

* * *

"Is this the house?" I ask as I walk up to Hikaru. He's searching the numerous cupboards, a nicer wood that's not usually found out here.

"No, but it's been nicer than the others. I guess someone rich wanted to get away from the busyness. It doesn't have much food in it though. I'm assuming the people here didn't have much rietsu…"

"Uh, what's that?" Hikaru gives me a strange look. He shakes his head in disappointment.

"You've learned nothing, haven't you… It's the kind of power that the Shinigamis run off of. It's what differentiates them from regular people here. Normally people aren't hungry, you know that right?"

"Wait what? Then why do all of us experience it?"

"It's cuz we have a rietsu, but, sadly not enough to be a Shinigami, who have huge amounts. That's the reason why we're together. Normally families are made up of 5." Hikaru continues scavenging. Shortly Akane's voice rings throughout the large house, calling us over for dinner. We all sit down in the courtyard in the middle of our house. It has a big fruit tree in the middle and little patches of grass, but mostly dirt. Everyone enjoys the shade the tree gives off, protecting us from the summer sun. The younger ones have huge smiles on their faces, happy with the candy and fruits. I grab an orange and climb onto the roof, sitting next to Mikan who is watching the sunset over the numerous houses.

"Somewhere out there is our house Ichigo." She lies down on top of the brown old rusted tiles.

"Yep little sis." I bite into my orange, licking my lips and winking at her.

"You sure are delicious Mikan."

She scowls at me. She quickly shoots up from lying down, and squats right next to me.

" Gross… You're such a pervert." She coils then socks me hard in the arm, and a slight throb begins. We lie back down, waiting for dusk, the feeling of homeliness surrounds us.

* * *

**Hi there!**

**Sorry it's been so long... I hope you guys enjoyed this. I'm hoping to finish it up soon, it's a really short story. **

*If you didn't know, Mikan means Orange, so Ichigo was taunting her.

**Also I'm not using honorifics because it's really troublesome, sorry if that bothers you!**

**If you have any good (or bad) thoughts/opinions feel free to tell me, it'd be very appreciated!**

**-Slipsilvermoon**


	3. Chapter 3

_Rukia_

The moon and stars were bright in the sky when Renji and I returned from another endless search that was useless. No one knew who Ichigo was and the picture didn't help. It'd already been at least a week and we were left with no results. I felt very hopeless. I took in a shuddery deep breath. The fact that Ichigo was gone made my heart pang loudly. The pain of unsaid feelings surrounded my heart, forcing a tight band around it and making the thumps loud and clear. They felt forced, and it felt like a large pressure had been put on my chest. It hurt, knowing that he was out there and he wasn't even trying to catch our attention. By now, the Ichigo I know would've gotten here, and if were lost would've committed arson to express and vent out his rage for failing.

It made me chuckle a little bit, thinking of Ichigo stomping his foot on some tables within a house then burning it down, wearing a foolish expression of anger on his face. I bet he'd cause so much trouble that someone from the division would be called out to see what all the commotion was.

We walked through the streets, people in black garments rushing throughout the Seireitei to help with restoration.

"Rukia, I know you're frustrated that Ichigo hasn't come back. Believe me, I'm pissed too. I swear when I see him next I'll make sure he feels the wrath of Zabimaru. Let's go get some sake and drink to our hearts content, you sure deserve it." I look up at him, trying to see what his real intentions are. He looks concerned and his intentions seemed pure so I agreed. We headed to the nearest bar, which was very crowded. I guess all the other bars had been destroyed in the fight…

* * *

It was a very dark interior, blues and black in all the furniture and walls. The floor was black but it looked like the owner had drawn things in neon paint, which glowed in the black light. Many people were dancing in the middle, music pulsing through the walls.

"I can see why this is so crowded Renji, I've never heard of a club being in the Seireitei…"

"Huh, it must be new, I mean the 9th Division hasn't said anything about it or mentioned it in the magazines. Oh well, who cares if it's a bar or a club, we can still drink." He walked up to the bar, sitting in an empty seat, right next to some rookies. I sat next to him, sliding onto the bar stool which was really tall. I too sat next to some rooks. I look around the room and notice that there aren't any officers of rank in this club. I guess it's only for the rooks, so it must be really strange that not one, but two lieutenants came here…

"Hey kid, whadd'ya want?" I look back to see a well-built man towering over me. He's not anyone significantly known and a rage begins to build within me.

"Who are you calling kid? I'm way older than you think I am." I glare straight into his eye, his green eyes filled with rage. He obviously doesn't like being challenged and has a short temper.

"If you want to cause trouble pip squeak, I suggest you leave, we don't want your kind here." He growls at me, cocking his head to the side and pointing towards the door.

"Look man, she's fine, just get her a beer and I'll have a round of shots." It's so Renji like to drop things like that. The bartender goes away to get our drink and deal with other patrons.

"What the hell Renji, I could totally deal with him!" I whisper harshly in his direction, him now the subject of my glare.

"Look Rukia, honestly I don't feel like drawing too much attention to myself. I'm here to have a drink and relax, and you should too." His eyes are soft when he says that, concern yet again on his face. I frown, not enjoying the fact that Renji is so worried about me. I soften my face and sigh.

"Renji, please don't worry about me, it's just the stress is eating at me. You'd think they'd have found him by now, he'd still come even if he had nothing, right?" Renji looks down and contemplates deeply, furrowing his tattooed brows.

"Knowing Ichigo, if he had nothing his pride would get in the way and he'd be ruined. He'd be too embarrassed to show his face to you or me because he holds no more power. I mean you saw how pathetic he was in the past when he lost his shinigami powers. I wouldn't doubt the possibility he's just embarrassed to be like that again." Even though the club is noisy, a silence runs between us, the weight of his words resting and adding onto my heavy heart. The bartender comes back and hands us our drinks. I sip my beer slowly, not really in the mood to drink anymore. I swivel the stool around so I can look out on the dance floor. I guess the person running this place kept up with the latest trend in the world of the living; everything was so modern. The music wasn't in Japanese, and sounded very electronic. It was strange I must admit, something I wasn't used to hearing.

* * *

I sigh, turning back towards the counter resting my head on it so I can absorb and feel the beat that runs throughout the room and furniture. I close my eyes and rely on my ears. Though I try hard, the conversation rooks right next to me are having is distracting.

"Man, you're such an idiot. The longer you wait the harder it's going to get." The rook on the right of me says, laughing at the end. I hear a large gulp come from the guy next to him. "Look, I didn't know, I thought I couldn't be, but when I saw the notice I was embarrassed, I mean I was the one who put him there." My eyes snap open; this guy had to be talking about Ichigo.

"You know it's not too late, just tell them it's you, I'm sure they won't punish you. It's like a lottery and that kid just came at the wrong time. Look, I'm here to have a good time so while you mope about, I'm going to go dance with that hot chick, right over there." The stool squeaks as he gets off it, swiveling in circles. I turn towards the moping guy, watching him as he downs his sorrows with sake. I need to confirm if they were in fact talking about Ichigo, so I hop over.

"Were you guys talking about the notice that was put up a week ago? The one about that kid, uh, what was his name?"

"You mean Ichigo Kurosaki? Yeah we were talking about that." His eyes were sad as he stared down into his glass. If I'm to get the information I need, I have to play clueless. I widen my eyes, pretending to be in shock.

"It's crazy right? I've only heard a little bit about him, but I heard he was somewhere in Rukon Districts. Do you know what happened? Where he was sent?"

"Why would you care? It doesn't have anything to do with you. So what if I knew something? It's not like you'd need to know." He looked a little angry, pissed that I was butting into his business.

"Are you going to tell them?" I say, whispering loud enough so only we can hear. He nods his head no. I take a sharp inhale, displeased with his reply. I try to control my anger, but it gets the better of me. Next thing I know, he's up against the wall and my face in his. My grip on his kimono increases as my anger wells.

Though he's taller than me, he cowers down and reaches my height. No one can see us, we're off in a hallway, and if they do no one will care.

"I know you know something, what district?" I say with a cool voice, hoping intimidation will work. He yelps, frightened by my sudden attack.

"I-i-i-it won't work, y-y-you'll never find him."

"Where is he?" A little bit of anger edges into my voice. I press him against the wall harder, making him wince in pain. Though he's taller, I'm stronger. He takes a deep breath trying to stop his tremors.

"You have to understand, I didn't have a choice." I don't care, I'm angry and I want answers.

"Where?" I demand, no anger is withheld anymore. I stare him straight in the eyes, my stare never wavering.

"District 80, East or South, I can't remember. You know it's impossible to find him..." I loosen my grip, letting him scuttle away back to the bar. I stride back to Renji, saying my goodbyes and leaving the club. I can't stay there a drink with finding Ichigo on my mind. Now at least I have a start, but it was too vague it'll still take time. As I head back to my room my thoughts are overcome with what the rookie said. East or South hmmm. I don't know if I should relay this information to Captain Commander, turn him in or just go searching myself. I better just search myself, it's not like it'll affect anything if other people know about it. As I slide the wooden door that leads to my bedroom, a wave of exhaustion overcomes me. I strip my clothes off, the cold are on my bare skin. I quickly dress into something light and lay in the futon, curling up to keep the warmth. As I lay my eyelids become heavier and I finally close them, my thoughts absorbed in planning my next actions. On the verge of sleep I finally come to a decision: Tomorrow I'll search the largest and most crowded district; District Number: 80, Direction: South.

* * *

**DRAMA! Hope you all enjoyed. I didn't know we'd get to this point so fast. Oh well! No point in dragging it too long. I'm sorry that this is a constant thing, but my writers spark has been lit again.**

**Love you all!**

**Slipsilvermoon**


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